Sympathy for the Father
by Valentina LaFontaine
Summary: "I just wanted to say goodbye to our father." Andromeda sighed. "You abandoned my father." Narcissa said. "You abandoned my family. Why should we give you the right?"


"Mistress?" Narcissa heard a squeaky voice say as she brushed her long golden hair. Narcissa rolled her eyes, placed her jeweled brush on the vanity counter and flashed him a dirty look. "What now?" she asked with a pale eyebrow raised and her polished finger tips tapping against the counter. The big eyed elf handed her a letter. "Mistress has a letter from Mrs. Black." For a second she thought Dobby was talking about her mother, but she remembered that it hit her. Her mother has been dead for almost three years. Of course it was her Aunt Walburga.

Narcissa snatched the letter and shooed him away. When she was sure the elf was out of her sight she picked up the gold letter opener by her make up supplies and ripped open the letter. She quickly opened the letter and read it.

"_My dearest Narcissa,_

_I hope you, Lucius and the next member of our family is doing fine. However this isn't a congratulatory letter, my dear. It is with a heavy heart that I must report your father Cygnus Black, has passed away days ago. He died mercifully in his sleep and didn't suffer. I'm so sorry my lovely niece. His funeral shall be tomorrow in the early morning at the Black Manor. He loved you dearly. _

_Love, _

_Aunt Walburga_"

Narcissa's mind went into shock. Her eyes started to fill up with tears and her hands shook crinkling the parchment in her hands. "Daddy…" she said and put a hand on her three month pregnant belly and the other one side of the vanity, shaking with grief she started to walk to her bed and sat on the edge. She was confused. Her mind was frozen into place the words her aunt wrote were shouting at her and she didn't know how to react. "Daddy…" she said again. Then it hit her. Daddy was dead.

Out of what seemed like nowhere she started to cry. Small little tears fell down her cheeks, and then transitioned into a fit of screaming and started kicking and waving her hands like a young child in a tantrum. She yelled, kicked, and threw things around the room. When she no longer had the energy to do so, she grabbed her pillow and cried in it.

She wasn't sure how long she had been sobbing but what felt like seconds later she felt a hand pass down her back and through her hair. "Cissa?" he heard a drawling voice say. "What happened?"

Narcissa didn't reply but instead handed him the tear stained, crinkled letter. He read it silently and said. "Oh…Cissa…"

"He died alone." She said in a shaky voice barely able to keep it contained. She felt his hand drape under her back and the back of her knees. She was lifted into the air, and placed on his lap. She laid still, as he cradled her to his chest. She was surprised he could still do it even being a few pounds heavier, but then again he was a strong man. Strong like her father. She started to cry heavier as he reminded her so much of her father. The way he used to cradle her when she had night terrors. She used to be terrified of the dark, and despite her mother Druella's protest he coddled her when she screamed for him in the dead of night.

Cygnus even went far enough to whip the hell out of Bellatrix for blowing out Narcissa's night candle. He'd hold her and talk to her until she was able to fall back asleep. Cradling her like a little baby. The safest place she could be was in her father's arms.

"I should've moved in with him, or…he c-c-could've lived with us. Since mother died he was so alone… I-I-I could've done more."

"No…" Lucius said. "Don't think that. There was nothing more you could've done. You did what you thought was best."

"I sh-should've insisted."

"Cissa he refused." He said. "Your father was a fiercely independent man."

"At least he had mother… I could've done…something."

"No. He knew you had your own life to live. He didn't want to become your burden."

Cygnus hadn't been the same since Andromeda was disowned. He lovedall his children, but Narcissa was his favorite. He made no secret of it. Bellatrix was more like the rough and tough boy he wanted, and Andromeda was the closest to him in personality but she was the baby. His baby, and needed him the most. He never wanted to disown a child of his, but he couldn't put his own views to bed and still accept Andromeda. It broke his heart. Narcissa remembered before that fateful day Druella would have to tell the three of them to leave Cygnus alone for days on end till he 'felt better'. He was prone to mood swings mostly between extreme happiness and a deep sadness. After Andromeda, Narcissa would come home from Hogwarts to find her father passed out with his head on the dining room table, whiskey bottle a quarter full and his pipe still lit.

She'd put the whiskey away, the pipe out, and a blanket over him. She never understood why he was so depressed before, but after Andromeda's mistake it became twice as worse. The depressive states would last for months, sometimes he'd barely eat. He may not have loved Druella but at least she kept him safe, and ever since her death he had no one.

"It's not your fault, Cissa. He was great man. He loved you dearly."

"Family was the most important thing to him, and it is to me. I should've done something."

Lucius couldn't offer a kind word that would change her mind. He had to let her go and watch over her to make sure she didn't do anything extreme especially in her fragile state. "I'll tell the elves to prepare our trunks. We can't Apparate. It will be too harsh on you, it won't be that long of a ride."

Narcissa didn't respond instead she stared at the wedding photo with her mother and father standing beside her and Lucius. She remembered that day like it was yesterday. She told the band to play the same song twice so she could dance with her father longer.

Thinking about that moment made another wave of tears come and fall down her face.

* * *

"Oh darling…" The gray haired Aunt Walberga said hugging Narcissa as she entered the Manor. She was dressed in black from head to toe a handkerchief in her hands. Her eyes were still red and puffy. The tight bun she was trying to do was loosening with every passing second. It was hard to do her hair with shaking hands. "You shouldn't be here in your fragile state."

"I know but… I wanted to say goodbye." Narcissa said. Lucius was holding her hand tightly and stayed by her side. Aunt Walberga nodded her head and led her to the coffin where he was kept. His skin was abnormally pale, and his brown hair was combed back. He was wearing a black suit with his pocket watch in his left breast pocket. "Oh daddy!" she cried into her handkerchief. She leaned down to touch his face. She expected him to be warm, like he'd always been.

In the early morning when she was a child she wanted her father to take her into the menagerie. She'd lightly tapped his face till one of his dark eyes opened and he'd smile at her. She half expected him to open his eyes like he always did. Like it was all just a bad dream, but he was cold and unmoving. Narcissa kissed him on his cheek and turned into Lucius's chest and he led her away from him. She kept with Lucius on the couch talking to Aunt Walberga and several other distant family members who offered her their sympathies.

Narcissa was cold toward them until a hand touched her shoulder and leaned beside her. "Hey Cissy." Bellatrix said.

Lucius rolled his eyes and Bellatrix nodded toward him. "Bellatrix." he said responding to her nod.

"Lucius." She said rolling her eyes and turning back to Narcissa. "How are you holdin' up?" she asked.

"I'm okay I suppose." She nodded. "Just hanging in there. I felt like we could've done mor-."

"No." Bella said shaking her head. "No. We've done all we could do."

Narcissa frowned. "You didn't do much."

"You heard Father… he said he didn't want to be a burden to us. I was only doing as I was told."

Lucius shook his head trying to signal Bellatrix to shut up for once, but it was too late. "How dare you!" Narcissa exclaimed. "Family meant everything to him. Family doesn't abandon each other. We stick by each other despite the odds. He preached that to us and don't you forget that." Narcissa's face was close to Bellatrix's but she was mostly unmoved. "Fine…" she said apathetically.

* * *

Cygnus would be buried next to Druella, just as he planned. The weather was ironic to the burial. During Druella's burial it was snowing, but Cygnus however the sun was bright and the normally cold, was fairly warm. Narcissa held onto Lucius as she watched her father be transferred to the Black Family graveyard. She wiped her red eyes with the corner of her handkercheif she saw a cloaked figure with auburn hair. Narcissa didn't dare attract attention to the figure knowing that the Black family wands would be out and another death might occur.

One by one the Black Family left leaving Narcissa, and Lucius by themselves. "I feel like an orphan." Narcissa said. "I can't believe it. I'm an adult and I feel like a little kid."

"I know." Lucius said with a nod. Lucius lost his mother in his sixth year at Hogwarts to disease, and his father died a little after their wedding.

"It's her fault." Narcissa said her eyes on the cloaked figure. Lucius frowned and looked at Narcissa skeptical of her claim. "Her? Why her?"

"It's her."

"Who?"

Narcissa didn't answer his question instead turned back to her father's grave. "Hello Father." She said with a smile. "It's me Narcissa, love. Well…you knew that. The little one is doing just fine. I wish you could see it. Lucius think it's a boy but I think it's a girl. I want it to be. I miss you so much Daddy. I already do. Do you miss me? How's Mummy? Tell her I said hi okay?" Lucius touched her on the shoulder. "I think that woman you blamed is coming closer to us."

"I know…" Narcissa said turning back to the grave. "You remember Lucius? Say hello." Narcissa said.

"Cissa…"

Narcissa flashed him a warning look, Lucius turned to Cygnus's grave. Lucius sighed and smiled. "Hello Cygnus."

"Thank you." Narcissa said. "I hope you're happy. You've been waiting your whole life to be happy. You're gone but you're not forgotten." Narcissa said blowing him a kiss and turning to the cloaked figure. Narcissa marched toward her with Lucius following behind her trying to keep up. They had lost three other babies to miscarriage already and he was determined not to lose this one.

"You." Narcissa said pulling out her wand. The cloaked figure started to back her up. "Don't even think about apparating on me. You owe me a explanation."

The cloaked figure sighed and removed her hood. Andromeda looked just like Narcissa remembered her. Long auburn hair, and the same full face. Only she was wearing more make-up than she used to. "I just wanted to say goodbye to our father." Andromeda sighed.

"You abandoned _my_ father." Narcissa said. "You abandoned _my_ family. Why should we give you the right?"

"You sound like mother." Andromeda scoffed shaking her head. Narcissa put her hand on her hips and said. "You know I'm nothing like her, and she's dead too." Narcissa said in a cold voice.

"I know…" Andromeda said. "I paid my respects. Why didn't you pay your respects."

"I was in Hungary at the time for my Honeymoon. Had I known earlier I would've." Narcissa replied with her nose up in the air.

"Druella was a shrew of a woman but at least I paid her respects. She gave me life and for that I will always love her, it seems that you abandoned your family as well." Andromeda replied. Narcissa smirked and shook her head. "If that's the way you wish to put it then fine," Narcissa said. "But we're talking about Father. You killed him. You knew he was in bad shape. Yet you aimed to be selfish and you damn sure broke his heart."

"One day you'll understand that what I did was for my own good. Not simply to preserve some inbred dream."

"This inbred dream was what kept my father alive. He didn't have much but he did have us. His family."

"I forgot how forthright you could be…" Andromeda sighed.

"You seem to have forgot a lot of things honey…" Narcissa replied her hands clasped together and a smug smile on her face. "I never want to see you again. Don't even dream of coming back or it'll be the death of you."

"You don't heart, do you?"

"It's not about heart darling… it's about blood. You traded your pure blood for one of a mudblood.

"Wipe that smirk off your face." Andromeda said. "You may be a Malfoy now but you can't do what you want. I told you to look beyond the bigot ways of our parents all those years ago remember? But you're the living embodiment of it. You can't be that blind. We've grown up… I'm not the same girl that I left home as."

"I am." Narcissa smirked.

"Then you'll die just as sorry and miserable as mother and father did." Andromeda backed away and disapparated with a pop.

"Bitch…" Narcissa and Lucius said at the same time. Upper class pure bloods refused to use foul language. Such ways were for the lower class but there was only so many times when they could hold their tongue. "Father would roll in his grave if he knew that she actually breeded with that the mudblood."

"Then thank goodness he died without ever knowing."

"Amen." Narcissa said turning around and walking back into the Black home. Narcissa placed her head on Lucius's shoulder and sighed. "Let's hope the little one never disappoints us."


End file.
